At a recent funeral and also a wedding I attended last weekend, I saw many people I hadn’t seen in a long time, many who have known me to be in better health. When friends would attempt to speak to me and ask a question, they were not able to hear my response because of my faint, monotone, slow speech. I’m sure this is uncomfortable for them since it’s difficult to carry on a conversation with me without an interpreter (usually a family member). They seem to question whether I can hear them; so they talk louder. My indiscernible voice is misleading!! Many times, people feel so awkward that they politely excuse themselves and walk away. What is frustrating is that I do desire to communicate and joke with them (although my timing is off). I know exactly what I want to say but because of my articulation, complicated by excess saliva, my words come out slow and unintelligible and are interrupted between pauses for spitting. Unless a person is willing to patiently take the time, get close enough to hear me and make an effort to understand what I am saying; my words would simply be lost and unable to be shared.   These reoccurring situations in public are greatly discouraging for me.  

God has helped me to see that this was the same way that I have treated Him. He showed me that even though I may have wanted to hear a word from him, I was unwilling to draw near to hear His voice in my spirit man. He showed me how often I would choose to give in to the needs of my body and emotions without having an ear to listen to what the Spirit was saying to my greatest need. Or how I would let my mind wander drifting away to think about selfish and earthly things instead of patiently waiting to listen to the one whom has the words of life. Other times, I have been too busy, preoccupied, in too big of a hurry to accomplish something “important” for God but was really just being self-occupied, not willing to take the time to worship Him through my spirit man.  The Holy Spirit began ministering to me the verse; Jn. 4:24 “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” The reason we must worship the Lord in spirit is because that is the only part of us that can commune with Him. Trusting in sight, our eyes will not bring us into the presence of God because they are blinded to the spirit (Jn 12:40).

We need our ears and eyes to have the scales removed from them so that we can truly worship God. We need the Spirits illumination. This only happens when we die to our self life (our flesh) and live by faith in Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Gal 2:20. 

The Holy Spirit is the life-giving Spirit; we need to remain in a heart posture of communion in our spirit to meet Christ throughout our day. When we live outside of the “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) we live “the life of the flesh which is in the blood” (Lev 17:11) (self effort, self works) but when we choose to live the life of the spirit we are choosing to live our life in Christ’s finished work blood (Jn 19:30) (Christ’s effort, Christ’s work). We can only live this spirit-filled life through Christ. Help us Lord to open the eyes and ears of our hearts to know who we really are through Your Word, and Your Spirit. 

Life is very short compared to eternity; this is why we must not waste any opportunity we have to live in this life by His Spirit and in His power. We have to ask Jesus to help us see beyond our immediate situation. There are some things in life that are more important than what you are facing now – understanding that God loves you and has a plan for your life, a deeper purpose than just to suffer. He won’t waste your sufferings, they are precious to Him, but He wants you to look beyond your pain and into His promises for you. God is not a man that would lie, His Word is true, and He only asks us to believe it by faith. We must believe without seeing and be patient until what we believe for manifests from the spiritual realm to the physical. If I had not believed that God had a plan for my life, I would have been so bitter and negative. But I have a dream, we all should have dreams. When our dreams match up with Gods word we can be confidently assured they will come to pass. Abraham was a man of faith but he had to step outside of his tent and take a look at all the stars of God’s promises before he began his journey of faith. God’s promises to Abraham gave him the capacity to dream for something beyond what he could perceive with his natural senses. 

Abraham heard from God through his Spirit not his flesh, trusting God to lead him to the Promised Land. When we are in Gods presence hearing from Him you will know where you are going, and then with your eyes fixed on this hope, all the bumps in the road will not affect you. When you go through hard times, the Spirit will quicken you to remember Gods promises to you. You will be able to stand strong against overwhelming tribulations because you know Jesus will never leave or forsake you; and has already overcome the world for you Jn 16:33. God speaks to us today through his Son Jesus who is the Word and through His Spirit; to anyone that is available with spiritual ears to hear. Mk 7:16. 

“Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again. And His disciples heard it.” vs 20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mk 11:12-14; 20-24  

Most people approach this portion of scripture with regards to Israel or Christians not having fruit in their lives. I would like to look at it from a faith perspective.

The fig tree that Jesus cursed died from the roots up. When the disciples heard Jesus curse the tree they saw no evidence by sight of anything different happening to the tree. After returning from Jerusalem the next day, Peter said, Master look! The fig tree you cursed withered away. Peter could now see with his natural eyes the effects of Jesus’ words to the fig tree that were spoken the day before.

Jesus spoke His Word and immediately the fig tree’s roots began to dry up. This process first took place underground where the disciples could not see and within a day had spread to the tree trunk and branches where it now became visible for all to see.

I believe Jesus was teaching his disciples a spiritual principle using the fig tree as an example. Jesus spoke to the fig tree yet nothing changed by appearance, however in reality, the trees roots had already begun to dry up. Tree roots are underground below where the physical eye can see. Our spirit man is also concealed, hidden from us by the veil of our flesh. We hinder our understanding to see into the spiritual realm by wholly relying on that which we perceive by our five senses. Rather, we are admonished to “walk by faith not by sight” 2Cor 5:7.

God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24). When God moves it is in the spiritual realm within our spirit man. He has provided for our every need, whether or not we see what He has done in the spiritual realm manifest in the physical does not discount the truth of God’s Word, its still true. We are instructed to “have faith in God” and to “believe whatever things we ask for in prayer”; because our faith pleases God and counts for all eternity (1Cor 13:13).

When we ask in prayer for something, God our Father desires to move freely to give an answer in our spirits. Many times we have a promise, conviction or assurance that He has imparted. When God moves in our hearts, we need to possess our answer by faith. We co-labor with Him to fulfill His expressed purpose; we become responsible vessels to convert His Word into a physical reality through our actions. That is not to say that we are the one who produced the answer by our own power. It is God who works miracles and without Him we can do nothing, but we get to cooperate with Him by faith as joint heirs together with Christ. Ephesians 3:20 reads  “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us“ God’s power is at work in us and is superabundantly able to do far beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. Because Christ lives within us nothing is impossible for those who believe.

Jesus concluded his teaching about the fig tree by challenging his disciples to have faith in God and speak words of faith that “whosoever says unto their mountain be thou removed and doubt not in your heart, he shall have whatsoever he saith” Mark 11:23. Jesus then taught them how to pray in faith. V 24 reads, “Whatever things you ask for, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.” We often minimize the accomplishment of the Cross, pleading with God to move in our situation when our problem lies in our receiving all that He has provided for. Let us start praising Him for His fulfillment of our prayer and we will see mighty manifestations become our reality.  It may take another day for the answer to manifest in our physical realm. It may even take one month or one year or ten years, as it did for Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, the woman with the issue of blood and many other people of faith in the Bible. We mustn’t doubt or waiver in our belief that God has already answered our prayer. We remain steadfast, bold and immoveable on the promise of God. The time that it takes for God’s answer to be manifest in the physical may be hindered by our unbelief, forces of evil, or even a greater work of God in process.  

I love these truths and am growing in them daily. Glennis and I are speaking words of life unto my body, utterly dependent on the creative, powerful authority of the Word of God to restore and redeem. We are denouncing the influence ALS has in our lives and commanding it to leave in Jesus’ name! It has been 12 years now with this illness but I am determined to continue to believe GOD for a total healing manifestation despite what I see or how I feel.